Dr Purnima Barman has won the Gold Award at the ‘Green Oscars’ for her work in bringing together more than 10,000 women to save the greater adjutant stork and its wetlands habit in Assam, India.
The Whitley Awards, held annually by the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), are a celebration of grassroots conservation leaders. The charity’s flagship prizes – the ‘Green Oscars’ – recognise individuals for galvanising their communities in saving some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems and for their innovative solutions to the threats to nature.
Winners of a Whitley Award are given funding, which enables conservationists to scale-up their work and make a global impact.
The 2024 Whitley Award winners have been revealed, with this year’s Gold Award going to Dr Purnima Devi Barman for her influential work with the ‘Stork Sisters’ movement in Assam in north-east India.
Prizes were also presented to conservationists from Brazil, Bhutan, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Cameroon and Nepal.
Find out more about the incredible work being done by this year’s winners.
Whitley Awards 2024 winners
Dr Purnima Devi Barman
India’s Dr Purnima Devi Barman will receive the 2024 Whitley Gold Award of £100,000 for galvanising a movement of more than ten thousand local women to save the greater adjutant stork and its wetlands habit in Assam. The wildlife biologist has transformed the outlook for the scavenger bird and the local women, known as “Stork Sisters,” who have become conservation leaders.
Naomi Longa
Marine Biologist Naomi Longa and her all-female team of local and indigenous divers and snorkellers who are using AI to help safeguard the coral reefs in their native Papua New Guinea. The women are scaling up a network of locally managed marine areas in local waters in the Coral Triangle, home to 76 percent of the world’s coral reef species.
Aristide Kamla
Cameroon’s Aristide Kamla, the country’s foremost expert in manatees, who is saving African manatee habitat from invasive freshwater ferns which blanketed the surface of Lake Ossa. Using methods of biological control he is restoring manatee habitat and has trained a network of fishers to report sightings of the elusive marine mammal.
Fernanda Abra
Fernanda Abra from Brazil, where the Waimiri-Atroari people helped her to build low-cost canopy bridges over the BR-174 highway in the Amazon rainforest. This pioneering work is restoring connectivity for tree-dwelling mammals and protecting them from road collisions. The researcher plans to scale up to build bridges across the world’s most biodiverse country.
Kuenzang Dorji
Bhutan’s Kuenzang Dorji, a wildlife biologist, who is “restoring harmony” between people and primates – local farmers and Endangered Gee’s golden langurs. Traditionally considered good omens, the monkeys are now raiding crops as climate change drives a shift in their behaviour. Kuenzang will train citizen scientists in how to collect primate data that supports long term monitoring in the ecologically fragile Himalayan Ranges.
Leroy Ignacio
Guyana’s Leroy Ignacio, a conservationist and Indigenous Makushi, who is stepping up efforts to protect the Endangered Red Siskin songbird as Guyana, the world’s fastest growing economy, navigates unprecedented change. Leroy is leading his team in expanding a conservation zone that five indigenous communities created on their land to protect the small finch.
Raju Acharya
Nepal’s Raju Acharya, who spearheaded a 10-year government plan to protect owls that harnesses the proactive participation of communities in central Nepal, home to ten ethnic groups. The country’s leading owl specialist, Raju is bolstering protection in central Nepal, where 19 of the country’s 23 owl species are found.
Find out more about the Whitley Awards.
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Main image: Dr Purnima Devi Barman and the ‘Stork Sisters’. Credit: ProntoProd